Retired MGH nurse finds new life at Arc of the South Shore

Tuesday

Apr 17, 2018 at 5:00 AMApr 18, 2018 at 8:08 PM

An MGH nurse retires after 30 years and finds a meaningful new life at the Arc of the South Shore in Weymouth.

WEYMOUTH -- I first met Stephanie Peterson 40 years ago. In 1979 she was one of the city's first elder outreach workers; I had just started a column on aging and I followed her on her rounds. It was exciting to be out in the field with her and witness her passion for her work, including the most difficult cases. Candid as well as compassionate, she spoke openly about what was realistically possible and what was not. The city had 21,00 people 60 and older and three outreach workers.

One of the first stories we did was about a homeless woman who was sent away to Bridgewater State Hospital for a mental evaluation. Working with Dennis Ryan, the Quincy city clerk, Stephanie made certain that the woman's shopping cart and belongings were kept in a safe place under a City Hall staircase for her return, which did occur.

We also visited the home of a man named Walter, who sat smoking on his front steps, driven down by alcoholism. His wife had left him and Stephanie promised to help him and she did, as best she could. Stephanie was a single working mother with four children; times were tight and she loved the council on aging work, but she was determined to become a nurse. "All my life in the back of my mind, no matter what else I did, I was going to be a nurse if it killed me," she said. She took night classes while doing the elder outreach work, worked as a nighttime nursing assistant at Quincy City Hospital, took other jobs and earned her R.N. degree from Quincy College/UMass Boston seven years later.

Stephanie went on to a 30-year nursing career at the Massachusetts General Hospital, beginning in 1986 at age 45 and retiring in 2016 at age 75. She loved what she did and chose the neuroscience floor, working with MGH patients who had had strokes or brain tumors.

After she retired, Stephanie was at loose ends. "I felt I had lost my identity," she said. "I was a nurse . . . and then I was no longer a nurse. I was . . . what?" Her daughter mentioned that the Arc of the South Shore in Weymouth needed volunteers to work with older adults with developmental disabilities.

She went for an interview and signed on as a volunteer in the community day services program. It has changed her life. "I dearly love these people and I can't tell you how much I love coming here," she said last week. "I have always wanted to do something meaningful. And there is so much love in this room. I walk in in the morning and they all have big smiles and hugs, how welcoming it is. They are the greatest bunch."

Her group includes Susan Hogan, who is 73. "She just plugs along and is such a caregiving person to the others in the program, so kind and considerate of people," Stephanie said. . Paula Lannon is nonverbal but communicates well with sign language. Another member, David Legere drew Stephanie a picture of a rainbow and said, "We are all different, like the colors of the rainbow."

"Stephanie is awesome," Laurie Gustafson, program manager, said. "She just does so much. . . she knitted everyone a hat -- 43 people with a different homemade winter hat. She helps with lunches, she started our reading club and the sign language group, she loves music and arts and crafts, and her nursing background is another resource. She goes on all the trips, organized an Easter egg hunt and will come in on another day if her regular day is out." She also added a small colorful flag outside the entrance that says "Welcome Friends."

She was a natural at treating the program members with respect and dignity, asking their opinions and choices, speaking to them directly and not at or around them, using concrete directions and favoring new ideas for getting out the community..

Peterson, 76, grew up in Jamaica Plain, graduated in 1959 from Jamaica Plain High, married and had four children: Dorothy, Donna, Fred and Debby. "My grandmother had a nursing home in a big old house in Jamaica Plain and I half grew up there and I loved the nurses. My insight into what nursing was about came from watching them and what they did. They were wonderful, beautiful people.

"Everything I have loved to do has involved taking care of people. Geriatric always seemed to be the little soft spot in my heart."

More volunteers are always needed. Anne Holton, vice president and director of day services, can be reached at 781-335-3023, Ext. 2219.

Reach Sue Scheible at scheible@ledger.com, 617-786-7044, or The Patriot Ledger, P.O. Box 699159, Quincy 02269-9159. Read her Good Age blog on our website. Follow her on Twitter @ sues_ledger.